Tropical Storm Andrea Marks Official Start Of Atlantic Hurricane Season

The first day of June marked the official start to the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. While this year is far different from the beginning of the season last year when there were already two named storms by the end of week one, there is concern over a system that’s developing in the southern Gulf of Mexico and northwest Caribbean.

While the system is not yet very well organized, all the right ingredients are in place to pave the way for it to become a tropical depression or tropical storm sometime over the next few days. One thing that is for sure about the unstable weather in the southern Gulf is that it appears to be on a bee-line for the state of Florida. At the very least, the Sunshine State will see a whole lot of rain, flooding and even the chance of twisters forming out of the unstable system over the next three or four days.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from the 1st of June to the last day of November from Texas up to Maine. The peak of the season runs from mid-summer through mid-fall when most storms form and chug across the Atlantic Ocean. NOAA has predicted that this year will be an active season with anywhere from thirteen to twenty named storms of which between three and five will become major hurricanes.

The water temperatures need to be warm in order for a hurricane to form. While water temps are a bit cooler now than they were last year at this time in the Gulf, they are going to warm up soon and quickly. Right now there’s a current of warm water in the Gulf just south of the Louisiana-Mississippi border that is worrisome. Something very similar was blamed for the intensification of hurricane Katrina in ’05. This is something that forecasters are keeping an eye on even though it poses no threat yet.
So where will the hurricanes of 2013 make landfall in the US? A few forecasters are saying that the most vulnerable part of the country this year will be an area stretching from eastern Louisiana to Florida’s east coast. That however, is nothing more than a prediction as weather is very difficult to predict, especially this early into the season. The best thing to do if you live in a hurricane-prone area is to be ready for the possibility that your area will be impacted by a hurricane. Put together a hurricane kit, make a family emergency plan and check with your insurer to see if you’ve got storm and flood coverage.